Food TV might be more edifying than ever these days, but it has been a lot less fun since "Two Fat Ladies" left the airwaves. No one since has combined the carefree esprit and script-free spontaneity of Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright as they gallivanted about the British countryside in their motorcycle and sidecar.
Now, blessedly, their escapades are available on a DVD set ($59.99, Acorn Media) containing all 24 episodes and oodles of extras, including a documentary tribute to Paterson, who died in 1999, and a recipe booklet.
Not that we advise trying all the recipes, which sometimes involved unappetizing critters and often contained quantities of lard, butter and/or cream that would make Paula Deen blush.
In other words, they came by their moniker the old-fashioned way. They cared no more about calories than they did about political correctness or polite-society decorum, which seems especially droll coming from Britons.
Whether cooking for lumberjacks or cricketers, at an embassy or abbey, Peterson and Wright had as much interesting fodder coming out of their mouths as they were putting into them.
BILL WARD
